Providence

It's been a bit up and down for Northeastern since a quick start, though, on balance, it's been more up than down.

Tuesday qualified as another big "up" for the Huskies. Down 1-0 most of the game at Providence, Northeastern's Braden Pimm scored in the closing seconds of regulation to tie it, then won the game with another goal 12 seconds into overtime.

The win is the second straight for Northeastern, coming off a loss to Air Force and 8-8 tie with Dartmouth at a holiday tournament the week prior. And it improves the Huskies to 12-6-3 on the season, with the Frozen Fenway game coming up Saturday (2:15 p.m.) against Massachusetts-Lowell. Northeastern improved to ninth in the Pairwise.

"We've done a real good job focusing game to game. This is our 10th league game, there's 10 to go. It's a valuable two points and we'll take that and enjoy tonight. And we're playing a team Saturday that's similar to this team — drive hard to the net and they have very good goaltending. ... We just have to go game to game. Statement games, and momentum builders, I think you look back at the end of the year and tell that. We're not at that point."

It took a while, but Northeastern finally got to Jon Gillies, who was playing his first game back for Providence after returning from the World Juniors. Gillies played well for the most part, but uncharacteristically had trouble handling his rebound late in the game, leading to Pimm's tying goal.

"I thought the first period they came at us, and we were able to weather the storm," Madigan said. "Second and third period, I thought we played a lot better. ... The way we play, we're not going to generate a lot of shots. We try to keep pucks down low and possess pucks. I was pleased with our effort. It's hard to generate offense against them, because they swarm you down low."

Providence played well, by and large, but could not get the second goal that would've sealed it. The best chance came in the third, when Northeastern's Clay Witt — who had 38 saves — made a sprawling stop across the crease to keep it a one-goal game.

"When (Witt) made a save sprawling across, I said to our guys, 'That's the kind of save we'll need to win this game, guys, don't give up. Keep plugging away, he's keeping us in the game,'" Madigan said. "It wasn't so much a momentum change, but it gave us life still."

Pimm's two goals give him 12 on the season.

"He's a good offensive player. He's put up numbers here before," Madigan said. "He's capable of getting on a streak. Playing with Kevin (Roy) and Johnny (Stevens), he's a nice complement there. He's in a good zone. ... Something happens when it's the second half of your senior year. The last two years haven't been as good as he wanted to, or the team, but you get into a zone."

Providence is now winless in the last three, and dropped to 13-4-4. It plays a single game at Boston College on Friday, before heading to Colorado College for a pair of games the following weekend.